Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
Yesterday, 16 undergrad students and 11 Purdue Research Park and graduate students competed in the second annual Burton D. Morgan elevator pitch contest. It was really great to watch everyone in action, especially since 10 of the participants were either current or former students of mine. The icing on the cake was that Bruce Kidd, Director of Entrepreneurship, Indiana Economic Development Corporation and one of the judges, matched all of the cash rewards with state funding.
An embedded Zoho sheet of the contestants, with the winners indicated in the left-most column is provided below. It was indeed a phat event. Max Showalter’s article in today’s JCOnline is here: - Thanks Max! Hank
[Picture from JCOnline]
13 Responses to “Purdue Pitch Contest Results”
- 1 Trackback on Jun 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Great job to the finalists, it was great to watch all of our classmates give their pitches. I missed the food so I hope that was good! [The meatballs in particular - Hank]
Who the HELL is that kid in that picture?! He’s not from our ENTR 200 class is he?!
Oh wait.
It’s just me. XP
All kidding aside, it was awesome to be there, and it was very cool to see other students from our class go up and pitch their ideas, such as Daniel Piszro with his Core Marketing idea. Even Sawyer Sparks was there!
And the food was tasty too!
I notice that there are no undergrads who placed, that is too bad. I guess we just need more experience. Do you think the graduate and research students had better ideas or just a better pitch?
There were 2 divisions one for grad and one for undergrad. It was a great event I met allot of interesting people who had great suggestions for my business idea.
This looks to have been a great event especially with all the ideas floating around Indiana. It would have been nice to have attended but I could not be in attendance because of prior engagements. If there is such an event taking place again in the near future I will have to be in attendance.
I really liked the layout. For those not there, you pitched your idea in front of about 50 people, but there was a “man in the elevator”. Being that you’re basically talking to one person, judges can’t comment, it didn’t seem as bad as pitching to a huge crowd. It was fun pitching my idea. I didn’t want to pitch the class design going into the competition so on Sunday I thought about the idea I pitch. Basically, there is software that tracks purchasing habits online, I can do the same, just instead of saying they went to this page, I’ll say they were in this department of the bricks-and-mortar version of the store. I’m surprised because the night before I had about 1:30 problem & :30 about my product and I changed it around a lot the day of. I’m not sure if I will continue with this idea. I have to check into feasibility first, then, I will have to at least wait until May when I’m not as busy. Mainly, my goal was to pitch an idea, any idea. I have another three years at Purdue, yeah, 3! This has helped me a lot in feedback/ getting over public speaking. I expect to be a pro by the time I graduate, hopefully earlier.
Congrats to all participants!! I wish i could have been there!
Contrats to everyone who had the nerve to even do it, and conrats to those who won as well!
Congrats to everyone involved in the event and to those that placed! I think having an event like this is a great way of exposing potential entrepreneurs, and builds experience and confidence!
It looked like it was a great experience. I wish I could have been there.
The pitch contest is a great way for undergrads, grad students, and more to really get the experience of concisely stating the facts of their business in hopes of getting someone on board to fund their co. Good for all those who went to the contest/ participated in it, and congratulations to all those who placed!
wow!! thats really great to see all so many class mates in the elevator pitch contest! congrats!